Clashes as police try to clear Occupy Wall Street protesters

The clashes came before authorities postponed the clean-up of a Manhattan park where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camped for a month.

The announcement prompted cheers from a crowd that had feared they would be evicted.

Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said the owners of the private park, Brookfield Office Properties, had put off the cleaning.

Supporters of the protesters had started streaming into the park early yesterday, creating a crowd of up to 700 chanting people.

Brookfield believed it could work out an arrangement with the protesters that “will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use”, a statement from the deputy mayor said.

Brookfield, a property firm, had called conditions at the park insanitary and unsafe. It had planned to power-wash the plaza and allow the protesters back, but without the equipment they needed to sleep and camp there.

In a bid to stay, protesters had mopped and picked up rubbish.

They blame Wall Street and corporate interests for the nation’s current economic pain.

In Colorado, dozens of police in riot gear moved into a park and evicted hundreds of Occupy Denver protesters.